A lawyer acting for Linus Torvalds has contacted Linux vendors in Australia and asked them to sign a legal document relinquishing any legal claim to the word "Linux" and demanding they purchase a licence for its use from the Torvalds-created Linux Mark Institute, which administers the Linux trademark. The effort is part of an 18-month struggle to get 'Linux' registered as an Australian trademark.

Theres also an extremely good chance that Linux washing powder predates the Linux kernel, as the company that makes it was founded before Linus was even born (1950). However, they're still not in the same category.

Its not quite as clear as in the US, where VAX sued DEC - ending up in an out of court settlement and agreement that DEC wouldn't sell vacuum cleaners. I wonder did that follow over through Compaq to HP in fact... hrrm....